Gayle Montgomery’s obit today for longtime Oakland Tribune political writer and City Hall reporter Bill Martin, who died Christmas Day just short of his 90th birthday, provides a glimpse of the Tribune from a bygone era. Martin, a serious newsman but with a sense of humor, left the Trib in 1977 after the Knowland family sold the paper, not long after covering Jerry Brown’s first presidential campaign. An excerpt:
One time in 1974, Tribune Publisher Joe Knowland declared a "funny hat day" for the paper's employees, and was outraged when only the managing editor, Steve Still, had anything on his head in the fourth-floor newsroom.
The same day, the Tribune's editorial board was scheduled to interview a young University of California woman who was running as a Socialist for Congress. Martin showed up at the interview wearing a San Francisco 49er helmet, complete with a face guard, which he had borrowed from the Ringside bar next door. The candidate became completely flustered and left when Martin tried to light a cigarette through the helmet face guard.
